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Wellness Plans: Break Free of The Misconceptions

It is time to address, and “put to bed,” some misconceptions about wellness plans. It is easy to hang on to these misconceptions as an excuse to avoid change, but the bottom line is that they are just that – misconceptions – and the real facts are much too powerful to ignore if you are truly seeking to grow your practice, improve care and meet the needs of your customer base. With over 5 years of success as the leading vendor of wellness program implementation, we have heard it all, and the greatest misconceptions around wellness plans continue to be:

My clients don’t really want them

We don’t have compliance issues

We don’t believe in discounting

Our doctors are paid on production and will earn less

It is too complicated for us to manage

Pet Owners DO Want Plans
So, let’s look at the reality of well-run wellness programs. Based on the Bayer Study in 2011, 47% of pet owners wanted affordable monthly payments and 35% of pet owners wanted the peace-of-mind associated with knowing they are doing what needs to be done to keep their pet healthy. Fast forward 5 years to a survey of 3,000 pet owners that had their pets on a wellness programs for at least 12 months. Interestingly enough, when asked what they valued most about their plan, 47% of pet owners stated it was the ability to make affordable monthly payments and 37% said it was the peace-of-mind knowing that they are providing their pet with the very best care. Now couple that with the broad economic trend of monthly payments for many things in life, and you and your staff should be very comfortable that a significant portion of your clients DO want these plans and would appreciate the ability to make monthly payments. And if you still aren’t convinced – survey them!!

Compliance In and Out of Plans Exceeds 90%
Many practices say they have great compliance, and wellness plans will only cannibalize services that would have already been performed regardless of whether a client purchased a plan. That just isn’t true. Top notch practices have found that cannibalization actually makes up 10% or less of services performed in wellness plans. And as a result of being on a plan, practices experience over 90% compliance on top recommendations for services outside of the plans. For example, if the preventive care profile in the plans shows high kidney values, 90+% of clients say “yes” to recommended follow up diagnostics and care.

Plans that offer Discounts Result in a Higher Annual Per Pet Spend
As we mentioned previously, data shows that wellness plan programs can deliver a 10-15% increase in overall practice revenue; keep in mind that is above and beyond other growth initiatives and takes into consideration potential cannibalization of previously performed services (as mentioned above, a serious misconception). And the majority of practices offering plans (remember we have over 300,000 in our system) discount between 10-20% and even offer other benefits such as complimentary additional exams and discounts outside of the plan). The following diagram explains it best:

Increased Doctor Production Pay
A common misperception is that if veterinarians are paid on production, then wellness plans will result in them making less money. In fact the reverse is true – wellness plans mean healthier paychecks for veterinarians that are paid on production. True, they are getting production on plan items at the discount price, BUT in almost all cases they are providing more services in the plan than they were previously providing to the same pet before they enrolled in a plan. And with 90% compliance on recommendations outside of the plan, more frequent visits and a $1,500 average annual spend…you get the picture.

Ensuring that appointments are scheduled with the same doctor is just the icing on the cake, and can create a continuous annual revenue stream for a doctor that understands the relationship value that plans enable and encourage.

Partner with Someone that Knows How to Manage Your Plans
While we can’t tell you that there is no work involved in setting up a wellness plan program, we can tell you that the right partner makes all the difference and can significantly reduce the amount of work it takes to manage plans at volume. If you are going to look at offering wellness plans make sure the solution you decided offers both recurring payments and billing automation, is built upon an AR system and carries a separate client account balance for wellness, offers a true and comprehensive payment and missed payment management program built upon more that payment processing. Next week we will explore in more depth the concept of discounting and what do you really need to offer to be successful.

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About VCP
VCP was founded on the simple premise that veterinary practices can boost compliance, increase pet owner loyalty, and improve bottom line results through better financial services for pet owners. VCP has become the veterinary industry’s leading wellness plan management solution providing a comprehensive end-to-end platform that takes the uncertainty out of creating, launching and managing a wellness program. VCP’s leading wellness plans are a favorite with pet owners providing peace-of-mind in knowing their pets are getting the care they need at a monthly payment that can fit into almost any budget. The practice enjoys, increased compliance, up to 15% revenue growth and higher per pet spend.